The Gellert Letters
by TheShakespeareCode
Summary: Letters between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald, dated Summer 1899. Unpublished, undiscovered-until now... A bit of fun. :) Rated T because I'm paranoid. Hope you enjoy!
1. Letters-Part 1

**Hello! Hope you enjoy, and I own nothing. More will come! Best wishes to all! xxx**

 _Letters between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald, dated 1899._

* * *

Dear Gellert,

It's funny how the start of this letter is both an address and a statement-I begin to write, and by virtue of my quill, I am reminded of my love for you. There are a thousand words that seem to surpass "dear" to describe exactly what you mean to me, but none of them seem quite enough. I will therefore apply Ockham's razor, trusting that you know that in the honest simplicity there are more than a million words contained within, the whole contents of my heart bursting out to my Dear Gellert.

The afore-mentioned bursting heart has become a considerable problem for me. It would seem that my breast lacks the strength to contain it, and my lips the willpower. Though I assure you that our secret is well and truly under my hat, as it were, I cannot help but let my heart pour out of my mouth at every opportunity by speaking of you. It is as if, in your absence, I seek to bring you with me wherever I go. I daresay Aberforth is sick of the sound of your name-though I suppose that conversing with me about anything is a far cry more enriching than the dull thoughts in his own mind. Forgive my cruelty towards my brother, but he has become nothing but an irritant to me. Grief, I believe, has set within him the desire to reach out, to never be alone with his thoughts. It has therefore come about that he has taken to tailing almost every hour of the day that he does not spend with poor Ariana, or about with the goats beyond the river. Merlin knows what he does there, but I wish he would do it more often. Grief, on the other hand, has made me rather retreat into myself, for, as you well know, I am best served in my own company. There is one exception, however-I am best served of all in yours. I live for our meetings. I only wish that they could be more frequent.

Tell me if you have had any more thoughts on IG. I still find that such an idea does not sit well in my mind, but I find myself more than willing to do anything you desire, to follow you anywhere, to the very ends of the earth. Such adventures await us, I am sure. We will see them one day, my darling. One day.

Until your owl, your loving and anxiously waiting wreck,

Albus

* * *

Al,

IG. Tomorrow night, two o'clock. I will slip a few drops of sleeping draught into Aunt Batty's evening whiskey to knock her out, in case the whiskey does not. Make sure your siblings do not bother us. Tomorrow, I pray, we sow the seeds.

Poor Ariana indeed. I do pity the child-but we must draw strength and conviction from her sad fate. She will not have to hide for much longer, Al, if you continue to help me. You can bring about her complete freedom, as you will for all our kind. I am sure it is what your parents would have wanted-their afflicted daughter liberated, and their brilliant son heading a new age of prosperity and power. MAGIC IS MIGHT.

It is only in you that I have met my match-intellectually, magically, and of course ambitiously. It is such happy coincidences-that you and I should be trapped here together against all odds-that make history.

Write back quickly.

Gellert.

PS: I love you too.

* * *

Dear Gellert,

I must have read your miraculous post-script over a thousand times. Upon its discovery, all of the air left my lungs as if I was falling a great distance. I am not sure I have landed yet-especially since I cannot stop reading it back. It is as your words are written in Vanishing Ink, that I must savour it as much as I can before it disappears forever, leaving no traces, except in my mind's eye, on which it is burned. Again, I believe that, by saying your name, or by reading your words, I bring you beside me. I lack the words to express to you exactly what knowing that you love me in kind means to me. Again, simplicity will have to suffice-I love you. A thousand times I love you.

Your love has made all doubt about IG in my mind vanish. I am yours. I will meet you and we will execute your plan exactly as you command.

Your concern for my sister touches me. I consider it my duty to care for my siblings, especially poor Ariana, but as selfish as I may seem, I cannot call it my joy. I do not believe that Ariana can truly understand what she has done, but something so catastrophic, even by accident, cannot have escaped her completely. She is not to blame, of course-but the hidden guilt seems to keep her up at night more than ever. She shouts most dreadfully and flings herself about the room in fits of grief, seeming immune to the bruises and cuts she inflicts on herself. It is only Aberforth who can calm her down when she is in this state. This gives me hope that the moment Aberforth has left school, he can care for her full-time, and you and I can truly begin our work. Perhaps we can even take the Grand Tour. With all due respect to my oldest friend, I believe that you would be infinitely better company than dear Doge. We ought to see as much of the world as possible, learn everything there is to learn. It can only be helpful to our cause.

I will see you at two and not a moment after. Only one more thing, my darling-though I trust your judgement completely and I am sure you will be proved right-you mustn't be too disheartened if your theory does not pay off. I don't think I could bear to see you upset. There are a thousand other places we can search-as I have said, we have the whole world to travel. I am devoted to your cause. I live for it, as I live for you.

I remain, your anxious and loving

Albus.


	2. Letters-Part 2

**Hello all! More, as promised, and more soon! Hope you are well xxx**

 _Letters between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald, dated 1899_

* * *

Al,

Don't forget. IG. Two o'clock. I will be waiting for you. The muggles should all be well away by then, but just in case, make sure you bring your wand. I know you like to work without it these days, show-off that you are, but we cannot take any chances. I anticipate tonight with an eagerness I can only describe as volcanic. I find that I can hardly sit still. But we must save our energy and our strength for the task in hand.

Yours,

Gellert

* * *

Dear Gellert,

I find myself rather insulted at your reminder-I am not likely to forget our meeting. Your request for wands concerns me a little-I hope you mean that they are necessary in case we need to wipe any memories? Nothing more sinister than that?

A dull day ensues. Aberforth has disappeared-to his goats I shouldn't wonder-leaving me to watch Ariana alone. She is particularly unsettled-I am writing this note in a snatched half hour while she naps. The love I have for her does not soften the edges of the mind-numbing mundaneness of acting in _loco parenthesis_ for an unstable teenage girl. Nothing gives me more joy than the sight of your owl on my window pane. Except perhaps the sight of you at my door. Or indeed, in the graveyard tonight.

Ever yours,

Albus

* * *

Al,

 _Of course_ I mean memory charms-and only if absolutely necessary. We can hardly do our work from Azkaban-and I must tell you, in absolute confidence, that I do fear those dementors. I find myself so melancholy sometimes that I would find a permanent state of such depression completely unbearable. I would destroy myself. You must burn this note right away-I would have been beaten for saying such a thing at Durmstrang. There were always rumours, greatly encouraged by the older students to the first years, that dementors roamed the corridors at night to catch students out of bed. These were more than enough to keep me in bed for certain. I understand their usefulness, however FOR THE GREATER GOOD. Though if we use them, I will entrust matters concerning them to you. I am sure you are more than capable of handling them, though I know you do precious little study of dark creatures at Hogwarts. A great shame-your talents were wasted there. You should have been at Durmstrang.

Not that I have much lingering affection for the place anymore. I miss the mountains, I suppose-and I do wish I could have completed my studies. However, I believe that my private readings and experiments ( _NB-the word "experiments has been struck through and replaced with:_ ) more practical research gave me a more than sufficient education-far better than anything I could have been taught. At least Aunt Batty leaves me alone for the most part-she writes well into the night. I don't think I could stand having two dependent child-siblings holding me back as you do, Al. But as you have said, not for much longer. Not much longer.

Until tonight, I am your

Gellert

* * *

Dear Gellert,

Of course I will destroy your letter. I will throw it in the fire and watch until it burns to blackness, to ensure that your secret will remain safe with me. No one will ever learn of your fear-though it is of course completely understandable. I care not for the creatures myself, even from what I have read in books of them. I suppose they shall always remind me of my father.

I find this rather intimate insight into your fears most endearing, and I am flattered by your trust in me-you know that it is well-placed.

Perhaps a dementor is your Boggart-I would be interested to find out what ours are. Boggarts are most fascinating creatures-I would love to meet one. Perhaps that is another thing we will discover when we see the world together. They say that you never know what your Boggart will be until you see it-and then you realise that it could never have been anything else.

The hours crawl by, like a schoolboy creeping like a snail unwillingly to school. I am impatient for darkness and your company. And, of course-our task. If this plays out as you expect, you realise that we will instantly become legends in our own lifetimes? How much easier it will be to create our new world from such a platform, and with such magic by our sides? The thought of it fills me with such excitement, dearest Gellert. Of course, sharing it with you makes it all the sweeter, sweeter than lemon sherbet.

Always, your

Albus

* * *

Al,

What a fantastic idea you have given me! If applied correctly, Boggarts could be most useful to us! A sort of stick behind the more stubborn muggle mules-you know what a man will do when confronted with his greatest fear. Think of it-a few minutes in a room with something awful, their own personal greatest fear, and any muggle will be brought to his knees! All this FOR THE MUGGLES' OWN GOOD of course.

I understand the implications of a successful night, and the excitement bites at me as the hours tick by. There are none I would rather share my fame with than you, of course, but it is not merely fame we seek-it is credibility. Such a discovery would catapult us both into the light, and with such a reputation as yours, our plans could well and truly be put into motion from the highest authorities, as we would be officially the greatest living wizards. The greatest of all our kind and, by extension, the greatest of any kind. I would not tell you my secrets were you not my greatest ever friend-and indeed, the greatest gift life could have bestowed upon me. As I have said-the odds of two such minds merely being alive at the same time, let alone meeting, must have been unimaginable.

One thing, Al-I would that you would stop eating muggle sweets, such as that blasted lemon sherbet. They are beneath you, and most certainly do not become you.

A mere few hours to wait now, my love. I remain,

Your Gellert


	3. Letters, Part 3

**Hello! Thank you so much for reading!** **More soon! Much love xxx**

 _Letters between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald, dated 1899_

* * *

Dear Gellert,

Please. I beg this of you. I tried to come, but Ms Bagshot told me you were sleeping. I know that is a lie. Though Ariana pulls at my sleeve and Aberforth shouts his frustration, I find myself unable to move from the window seat, watching out of the window for your owl. It is pathetic-but I fear for you. My fear for your safety consumes me so wholly that I cannot breathe, as if the weight of your conscience sits on my chest like a demon. You have told me your mind-I know how darkness can consume you, and I beg you with all of my heart to stay afloat. Last night doesn't matter-of course it doesn't matter. It was only the first attempt, the first theory we tested as to the whereabouts of the Hs. It is no reflection on you, on your brains, or on your judgement. None at all, I swear this to you. You mustn't blame yourself. I think no differently of you.

Darling, you are still the most remarkable person I have ever met. Please, please, for my sake if not for your own, be kind to yourself.

Your own loving,

Albus

* * *

Dear Gellert,

Your silence is excruciating. I beg you-please. Please.

Your Albus

* * *

Al,

Leave me until the morning. I will send an owl with the sunrise.

Gellert

* * *

Al,

Well, you did as I asked, as you always do. And now, I will share my heart, as I am becoming accustomed to doing. Once again, I must ask you to burn this letter after you have read it, for its contents are for your eyes only. My quill hesitates even as I write.

I will start at the very beginning. I have told you of the tales my parents told me as a boy, those your own told you-those of Beedle the Bard. Specifically, that of the Three Brothers. Though I heard it and later read it in my own language, the details were shared most closely between translations. When I met you, and we learned of our mutual fascination-even obsession-with that tale, and with the three objects fashioned by Death's own hands and bestowed upon three great wizards-the Peverells, tradition tells us-I was transported. I could hardly believe that such a like-minded person could exist.

There was one thing, however, that we did not share. Not at the beginning.

I do believe that I opened your eyes. I have told you a little of my time at Durmstrang, of my private studies there, and of my expulsion. But I have never told you the exact nature of my experiments, for you have called them "my mistake"-you know that I took them too far. Too far in your eyes, anyway. Too far in the eyes of the world. You know of my experiments on the blood of wizards-on the purest blood, and on the filthiest. Of how I spent my school holidays collecting samples from muggles, any muggles I could acquire. I am sure, had I been able to continue, that I would have proven my point-that wizard blood is far superior, that non-magical blood is almost worthless, that by their very DNA, wizards are greater by far, worthy, as Plato says, to rule as philosophers and statemen, to hold power by virtue of the might of their magic. Of course, you know this was all FOR THE MUGGLES OWN GOOD. This was all to lift them, to elevate them. We have pictured it so vividly-wizards emerging from hiding and taking their RIGHTFUL PLACE above. And you and I, the greatest young minds of our generation, heading the dawn of the new age-the age of MAGIC IS MIGHT.

However-I have told you only a little of my other great project. I believe that my teachers were more than sickened by my experimentation with blood, for it is far more than their dull minds could handle. But it was only upon discovery of this other mighty endeavour, in which I had tried to go further, far further into the darkest reaches of magical power than any wizard has ever gone before, that my expulsion was final.

I wanted to shake them and scream in their faces- _wretched fools, open your eyes_! They see nothing, nothing at all! They are all blind, _blind, blind, blind_ -Albus, you are the only one who sees as I see, who dares to look into the darkness with not fear but an _open mind_! The moment I opened your eyes to the possibility that the Deathly Hallows were real, I knew that I had to have you with me when I begun to search.

I came to this country, to my great-aunt in Godric's Hollow, specifically to find Ignotus Peverell's grave. I was astounded that no one had thought to look before. The wand is traced through the centuries, the Stone was almost an impossible dream, but the cloak! The cloak! The story goes that the youngest brother passed on the cloak as an heirloom-but I believed that Ignotus was far too smart for that. Sons are fickle-graves are forever. I would have taken that cloak to the grave. I would have been a fool not to look.

It was strange-digging by the light of our wands in that place. But when we cracked open that old tomb, when we saw the skeleton, half-dust, the skull of Ignotus Peverell smiled mockingly up at us, for we had failed. I had failed. I had failed myself, and I had failed you.

I should go back to my homeland. But it is you who anchors me here. I cannot change the world without you, Al. I don't want to. So I will stay, here in this village, and we will continue our work.

Perhaps I can continue my greatest endeavour here, with your help. Perhaps, perhaps. I will tell you. Soon. Soon, I will tell you everything. But not today. All I want now is your companionship. And your love. I thank you with all of my heart, darling. I know now that I cannot be without you.

Yours ever

Gellert.


End file.
